DOMINO - Why 37 mm?

C

charlie b

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Apr 29, 2007
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Engineers generally, and German engineers especially, don't do things arbitrarily.  And German engineers are more proned to Order and Rational Thinking than most other engineers.

The DOMINO was designed, starting with a blank piece of paper, to perform some standardized functions - which I suspect are part of some standardized system.  I suspected the standardized systems was "the 32 mm system" - which actually comes in two or three different "flavors".  But having studied several of the "32 mm systems", I can't see how 37 mm fits in any of those systems.

SO - does anyone have a theory to explain WHY 37mm?

I called Festool USA Tech Support, and the guy with 10 years with Festool USA has no idea why 37mm.

This one's been bugging me since I got a DOMINO back when they first came out in the U.S.  And I'm pretty good at discovering "underlying principles".  But this one's got me stumped.

Somebody - PLEASE help!
 
32 mm system has holes centered on 32mm.  The 37mm dimension is the standard backset of the holes from the front of the box.  The hardware is designed for this backset.  As far as Domino goes, I don't know what you are referring to with respect to 37mm.
Steve
 
The 37mm refers to the distance from the side reference pins to the centre of the cutter. It's a bizarre number and doesn't really suit centring for any dimension of timber that I use.
I  could only think that the distance is required for some law regarding things like stairs or whatever in Germany, where joints must be 37mm apart.

Regards,

Rob
 
Being an ME and an American, my irrational opinion is of no value but your question is interesting. the answer would be enlightening.
 
you mean this number totally pulled out of thin air. ????? someone has got to have an opinion.
 
Rob (love your avatar, I have a similar picture of our cat); I don't quite see the problem with the distance being 37mm, odd as it may be. If you wish to center the domino on smaller width timber you just use the trim stop jig and center as you wish. For wider boards it would not matter as you just use it the centering pin as a quick guide stop and I guess 37mm is as good as any. Had it been narrower than that and you use the wider slit setting you would get too close to the edge, perhaps compromising joint strength? 

Centering for material thickness is done separately, but you know that already.
 
The edge of the pin is about 20mm from the edge of widest possible mortise.  Traditional M&T gets a lot closer than that.  I routinely plunge mortises as close as 7mm in face frame and door parts.  I also put mortises much closer together than the Festool recommendations.  So I think it's safe to say the that the 37mm pin spacing is useless for "normal" M&T joinery. 

I find that the 37mm pin spacing is just about perfect for all sorts of other applications.  So from my perspective the Festool engineers picked 37mm simply because it was the best choice.  There can only be one distance for static pins and they picked the baby bear distance, it's just right all things considered.

 
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